RLPB 712. September Update incl. Azerbaijan, Nigeria, Iran, Mozambique, Uganda

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 712 | Wed 27 Sep 2023
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

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SEPTEMBER 2023 UPDATE & ROUNDUP
By Elizabeth Kendal

UPDATE: DURING SEPTEMBER WE PRAYED CONCERNING

AZERBAIJAN AND SUDAN [RLPB 709 (6 Sept)], as Armenian Christians in Azerbaijan’s besieged Nagorno-Karabakh, and Nuba Christians in Sudan’s war-ravaged South Kordofan, faced the prospect of starvation.

UPDATE AZERBAIJAN: On Tuesday 19 September Turkic Muslim Azerbaijan launched what it called an ‘anti-terror’ operation in its Armenian Christian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh (N-K). Prior to the offensive Azerbaijan already controlled the high ground of Susha (which overlooks the capital Stepanakurt) and it had already closed the Lachin Corridor, the only road linking N-K to Armenia. So, when the shelling started and Azeri troops advanced, there was little N-K’s exposed, vulnerable and half-starved Armenian civilians could do but bunker down in their basements and wait for the end.

On Wednesday 20 September, after 24 hours of terror – during which five Russian peacekeepers and at least 200 ethnic Armenians were killed – N-K’s ethnic Armenian government agreed to a Russian-brokered cease-fire. The terms of the ceasefire require N-K Armenian Christians enter into talks on demilitarisation and ‘reintegration’ into Turkic Muslim Azerbaijan. On Friday 22 September Moscow confirmed that N-K’s defence forces had started surrendering their weapons and that the process would continue through the weekend with the help of Russian peacekeepers.

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov assured the UN General Assembly: ‘Azerbaijan is determined to reintegrate ethnic Armenian residents of the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan as equal citizens.’ Having enduring centuries of persecution and genocide, no ethnic Armenian believes that. By Sunday 24 September a mass exodus of Armenians was underway, eager to escape ethno-religious persecution and ethnic cleansing. They leave behind their homes, farms and businesses, along with hundreds of ancient churches and monasteries (many dating back to the 10th Century and some even earlier) and a land – Artsakh – that has been Armenian for millennia.

David Babayan, an adviser to N-K’s President Samvel Shahramanyan, told Reuters he expected almost everyone to leave. He said: 'Armenians do not want to live as part of Azerbaijan – 99.9 percent prefer to leave our historic lands. The fate of our poor people will go down in history as a disgrace and a shame for the Armenian people and for the whole civilised world. Those responsible for our fate will one day have to answer before God for their sins.’ (See Proverbs 24:12)

Everyone knew this day was coming: see RLPB 575, Genocide Postponed? 11 Nov 2020. Going forward, threats include: (1) ‘cultural erasure’ [see RLPB 577 (25 Nov 2020) and Cornell University College of Arts and Science (21 Sept 2023), ‘Hundreds of Armenian heritage sites at risk in Nagorno-Karabakh’, ]; (2) the territorial integrity of Armenia, as Turkey and Azerbaijan prepare to move on Syunik (Armenia’s southern-most province) [see RLPB 591, Armenia-Azerbaijan: new war looms, 31 March 2021, and Reuters (26 Sept 2023),  ‘Azerbaijani and Turkish leaders hold talks, eye land corridor via Armenia’ … ‘whether Armenia likes it or not’]. Lord have mercy!

NEPAL [RLPB 710 (13 Sep)], where Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) activists and political parties are exploiting the current political chaos and paralysis to advance the Hindutva cause. This is resulting in a marked escalation in violent persecution of Nepal’s rapidly growing Church. Please pray.

NIGERIA [RLPB 711 (20 Sep)], after more massacres – the aim of which is ethno-religious cleansing for the purpose of Fulani expansion – were reported in southern Kaduna and north-west Plateau.

UPDATE: (other September reports from Morning Star News)

Kaduna: Seminary student
Na’aman Danlami
(Aid to the Church in Need)

KADUNA (North West Region): On Thursday night 7 September gunmen attacked the rectory of St Raphael’s Catholic Church in Fadan Kamantan, in southern Kaduna’s terror-ravaged Zangon Kataf LGA. Intending to kidnap the parish priest, Rev. Emmanuel Okolo, the terrorists attempted to gain entry to the priest’s residence. When that failed, they set fire to the property. Whilst Rev Okolo and his assistant managed to escape, seminary student Na’aman Danlami (25) was trapped; he perished in the flames.

TARABA (North East Region): At around 2am on Sunday 10 September terrorists invaded the Mile Six area of Jalingo, the capital, located in the state’s north. A source in the area told ChannelsTV (10 Sept) that the assailants operated for hours, moving from one house to the other without interference by security operatives. The kidnappers have demanded ransom. The killings came just days after two Christians were killed and at least six kidnapped on the Takum Road in the state’s south-west.

PLATEAU (North Central Region): Before dawn on Wednesday 13 September gunmen invaded Maigyemu community, Jos East LGA. They broke into the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) compound in Nuku village and kidnapped the Reverend Usman Umaru from his residence. Two other Christians were also abducted.

NASARAWA (North Central Region): On Wednesday morning 20 September Muslim Fulani militants attacked Kola village, in Nasarawa state’s Akwanga LGA, killing one Christian, wounding three others – including Baptist pastor, the Rev. Thomas Wakayi – and displacing all residents.

Please pray for the Church in Nigeria’s Islamic North and jihad-wracked mixed Middle Belt.


SEPTEMBER 2023 ROUND-UP – ALSO THIS MONTH

* IRAN: ARMENIANS FREE TO WORSHIP, BUT NOT IN PERSIAN.
- worship in Persian (language) or witness to Muslims and you’ll go to jail!

(1) Ethnic Armenian Iranian Pastor Joseph Shahbazian was arrested on 30 June 2020 when agents from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps raided his house church gathering in Tehran [RLPB 557 (8 July 2020)]. He was sentenced in June 2022 to 10 years in prison to be followed by two years internal exile for ‘founding or leading an organisation that aims to disrupt national security’. However, in February 2023 the Supreme Court granted him a retrial and in May his sentence was reduced to two years. Then, on the evening of 13 September, Pastor Joseph Shahbazian (59) was summoned to the Evin Prison office and informed that he had been pardoned and was free to leave prison and return to his family, including his first grandchild, born while he was incarcerated. Thank-you Lord!

(2) Ethnic Armenian Iranian believer Anooshavan Avedian was arrested on 21 August 2020 when agents from the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) raided a prayer gathering in his home in north-east Tehran. He was sentenced in April 2022 to 10 years in prison, to be followed by 10 years ‘deprivation of social rights’, for ‘establishing and leading an illegal group with the aim of disrupting the security of the country through educational and propaganda activities, contrary to and disturbing to the holy religion of Islam, through the dissemination of false claims’. His appeal in May 2022 was not successful. On Wednesday 13 September 2023, Anooshavan Avedian (61) entered prison to commence his 10-year jail term. May the Lord intervene for Anooshavan Avedian as he did for Joseph Shahbazian. In the meantime, may the Lord protect, sustain and comfort him. Please pray.

* MOZAMBIQUE: MASSACRE IN NAQUITENGE

Map showing location of
Mocímboa da Praia (far north).
(Click on map to enlarge)
map source: worldometers

At around 3pm on Friday 15 September local militants affiliated with Islamic State invaded the village of Naquitenge village in the district of Mocímboa da Praia in Mozambique’s northern-most province of Cabo Delgado. Sources told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that the militants first summoned all the residents to a meeting. Once the residents had gathered, the militants then proceeded to separate the Christians from the Muslims. Then, according to missionary Friar Boaventura from the Institute of the Fraternity of the Poor of Jesus, ‘They opened fire on the Christians, riddling them with bullets.’ At least eleven Christians were killed in the attack, and many more were left seriously wounded; homes were burned and property was destroyed. Islamic State has claimed responsibility. The attack comes as displaced residents were starting to return to their homes, and a month after Mozambique forces reportedly killed Bonomade Machude Omar, the leader of the Islamic State group in Mozambique. Having ambushed a detachment of soldiers, Omar and his fellow jihadists were killed in the subsequent firefight. Please pray for Mozambique (estimated to be 62 percent Christian) and for the imperilled Church in jihad-wracked Cabo Delgado.

* UGANDA: ANOTHER EVANGELIST MURDERED

On Wednesday 6 September evangelists Philip Bere and Mudenya Sirasi participated in an evangelistic event in Eastern Uganda’s Kituuti town. According to Sirasi, many people accepted Christ, including Muslim women and two young Muslim men. About 7:40pm, as the evangelists travelled home to Katiryo, they were ambushed by Muslims angry about the conversions. Bere was struck and pulled from the bicycle as Sirasi fell but escaped into a tunnel under a bridge. Captured, Philip Bere (33) was subsequently bashed to death with a large rock. The pastor of Bere’s church told Morning Star News that police in Katiryo, Kibuku District, took statements about the killing and assured him they were searching for the killers. The pastor laments: ‘Our evangelist was killed because of his passion for preaching the good news of Jesus Christ, especially to Muslims.’ Apparently Bere was well-known for his preaching among Muslims in Buseeta, Lwatama, Katiryo and other parts in eastern Uganda. Please pray.

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Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate for the persecuted Church. The Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) is a donor funded ministry. To support this ministry visit www.ElizabethKendal.com

Elizabeth has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016). She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.

For more information see www.ElizabethKendal.com

RLPB 711. Nigeria: Terror in Kaduna and Plateau

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 711 | Wed 20 Sep 2023
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

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NIGERIA: TERROR IN KADUNA AND PLATEAU
- Christians live with gross insecurity while militant Muslims enjoy impunity.
PLUS – urgent update on Azerbaijan’s imperilled Artsakh Armenians.
By Elizabeth Kendal

CHRISTIAN CRISIS IN KADUNA

On Tuesday 12 September Christian leaders from across Kaduna State met with the state’s new Commissioner of Police, Musa Garba, and other senior officers in what was essentially a confidence-building exercise. The Christian leaders informed the police that attacks by militant Muslim Fulani herdsmen and Islamic terrorists have resulted in the killing of 23 pastors, the abduction of 215 Christians still in captivity and the closure of 200 church worship buildings in four years. They then tasked the police commissioner to ‘match his words with action by going after the bandits’ and ‘consider sanctioning religious leaders who engage in hate sermons and speeches’. Please pray!

Map showing area of Christian Crisis in
south Kaduna and north-west Plateau.

Three days later, on Friday 15 September, militant Muslim Fulani herdsmen attacked Dogon Noma village in predominately Christian Southern Kaduna’s Kajuru Local Government Area (LGA). Resident David Musa told Morning Star News (MSN, 18 Sep): ‘Fulani herdsmen surrounded the village in their hundreds, shooting anybody in sight; the attack occurred at about 7am. Pray for Dogon Noma community.’ Nigerian media immediately reported that two residents had been killed, at least four abducted with many more were wounded. By 18 September, MSN was able to confirm that 15 Christians had been killed and 32 have been abducted. Lord have mercy!

CHRISTIAN CRISIS IN PLATEAU

On 26 July, RLPB reported: ‘Since mid-May, Christians in central Plateau State have been under sustained attack as large bands of Muslim Fulani herdsmen have attacked village after village, seemingly with impunity.’ RLPB quoted Truth Nigeria (4 July) which warned that ‘several hundred terrorists’ were ‘massing in the Fulani ethnic settlement of Bangai [in Riyom LGA] … They are moving on motorbikes, 3 men to a bike and may number as many as 800.’ Truth Nigeria (20 July) warned that the ‘mother of all invasions’ was being prepared. According to intelligence it had received, the ‘invasion’ would start in Mangu LGA, and spread west into neighbouring Barkin Ladi, and on through Riyom, Jos South and Bassa, employing not only Fulani herdsmen, but jihadists and mercenaries recruited from across Nigeria and the Sahel. [See RLPB 703, Christian Crisis in Plateau State, 26 July 2023]. The terror continues.

On 7 August, at 11pm, militant Muslim Fulani herdsmen, working alongside Islamic jihadists, attacked the predominantly Christian community of Nchiya in Mangu LGA, killing four Christians. On 10 August, at 1am, they invaded the predominantly Christian communities of Banyit and Rahogot in Barkin Ladi LGA, killing 21 Christians and wounding at least seven. On 14 August at 2pm they attacked a community high school in Kwi village in Riyom LGA, killing two Christian teachers and wounding two Christian staff members. Morning Star News (MSN) reports that on Sunday 10 September militant Muslim Fulani herdsmen invaded the predominantly Christian community of Kulben in Mangu LGA at around 8:40pm, killing 10 Christians, wounding more, and destroying property. Lord have mercy!


PLEASE PRAY THAT OUR MERCIFUL GOD WILL:

* intervene in Nigeria to protect, defend, sustain and sanctify his precious Nigerian Church. May the Holy Spirit ignite in the churches a love that compels them into action – that they might advocate for their persecuted brethren; unite in intercessory prayer for them across tribal, regional and denominational lines; and give generously to those who are displaced, grieving and impoverished simply because they are Christians. May the Church put her trust in God, not ‘man’. ‘It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.’ (Psalm 118: 9 ESV)

* comfort and sustain all those vulnerable Christians across Kaduna and Plateau states who are grieving, wounded, displaced and terrified. ‘The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.’ (Deuteronomy 33:27 ESV)

* intervene in Nigeria to bind all ‘spiritual forces of evil’ as they seek to disable or even destroy the most missional Church in all Africa and one of the leading missionary-sending Churches in the world today. ‘For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.’ (from Ephesians 6:10-18 ESV)

* redeem the current insecurity and work it for good. May those who desire a better Nigeria for the sake of their children seek it and find it in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. May those in authority find the political will, courage and energy to reform the deeply problematic 1999 Constitution – which was written by a military junta and enshrines centralised – i.e. in the hands of the President – rather than state-based security, which can leave states unable to protect their people. May God the Redeemer (Haggo’el) have mercy on Nigeria!


SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
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NIGERIA: TERRO IN KADUNA AND PLATEAU

Militant Muslim Fulani herdsmen, often working in conjunction with Islamic jihadists, continue to attack predominantly Christian villages in Nigeria’s Kaduna and Plateau states. At 7am on Friday 15 September hundreds of militants surrounded Dogon Noma village in predominately Christian Southern Kaduna’s Kajuru Local Government Area (LGA) and shot anybody in sight. At least 15 Christians were killed and 32 were abducted. Meanwhile, Christian communities in neighbouring Plateau State have been under sustained attack since mid-May from militants estimated to be around 800 in number. Mangu, Barkin Ladi and Riyom LGAs have been most severely affected. There is mass displacement. Most recently, at 8:40pm on Sunday 10 September, militants invaded the predominantly Christian community of Kulben in Mangu LGA, killing 10 Christians, wounding others and destroying property. Please pray.
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URGENT UPDATE ON AZERBAIJAN’S IMPERILLED ARMENIANS

Background:
RLPB 709, Christian Crisis for Armenians in N-K, 6 Sept 2023
RLPB 702, Final Solution in Azerbaijan, 19 July 2023

At 1pm on Tuesday 19 September, Azerbaijan announced that it had launched an ‘anti-terror operation’ in Nagorno-Karabakh (an Armenian Christian enclave inside Turkic Muslim Azerbaijan). Troops have entered the capital, Stepanakert, backed by artillery shelling. Azerbaijan insists the operation will continue until the enclave’s government is dissolved and its armed forces are disbanded. Towards evening, former State Minister and Human Rights Ombudsman of Artsakh/N-K Republic, Artak Beglarian, wrote on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) that ‘26 civilians, including 11 children are injured, 2 civilians including a child is killed. Military casualties and injuries are also increasing'. Civilian infrastructure is being destroyed and more than 7000 Artsakh Armenians are again displaced. Clearly, Azerbaijan is moving to establish full control over this historically Armenian territory; genocide looms. Please pray.

live conflict map
20 Sept 2023

UPDATE (after the MailChimp's "automated abuse-prevention system, Omnivore," rejected and refused to deliver this RLPB, therefore causing delay): At 1pm on 20 September, ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh agreed to a Russian-brokered cease-fire the terms of which require they enter talks on demilitarisation and N-K's 'reintegration' into Azerbaijan. In the meantime, N-K/Artsakh Armenians say will not hand over their weapons until their security is guaranteed. This is far from over.

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Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate for the persecuted Church. The Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) is a donor funded ministry. To support this ministry visit www.ElizabethKendal.com

Elizabeth has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016). She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.

For more information see www.ElizabethKendal.com

RLPB 709. Azerbaijan and Sudan: Long-persecuted Christians face starvation

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 709 | Wed 06 Sep 2023
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

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AZERBAIJAN & SUDAN: LONG-PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS FACE STARVATION
By Elizabeth Kendal

AZERBAIJAN: CHRISTIAN CRISIS FOR ARMENIANS IN N-K

BACKGROUND: Nagorno-Karabakh (N-K) is a mountainous Armenian Christian enclave inside Turkic Muslim Azerbaijan. Prior to November 2020, Artsakh – i.e. N-K and its surrounds – was autonomous and protected by Armenia. However, on 27 September 2020, Azerbaijan – with support from Turkey and sophisticated weapons from allies Turkey, the US and Israel – launched a war to seize control of Artsakh. RLPB warned: ‘Make no mistake… Turkey and Azerbaijan have genocidal intent’ [RLPB 570 (7 Oct 2020)]. Whilst a Russia-brokered ceasefire, signed on 10 November 2020, did halt the Azeri-Turkic advance, it left the 120,000 Armenians of what remained of N-K in an exceedingly vulnerable position. With all the lowlands contiguous with Armenia lost, the only link between Armenia and N-K was the Lachin Corridor, which would be monitored by Russian peacekeepers. RLPB posed the question: ‘Is this a case of genocide averted or genocide postponed?’ [RLPB 575 (11 Nov 2020)]

SIEGE: On 12 December 2022 fake ‘eco-activists’ sponsored by the Azerbaijani government blockaded the Lachin Corridor essentially besieging the Armenian Christian enclave [RLPB 677 (25 Jan 2023)]. Eventually, on 15 June, Azerbaijan officially closed the Lachin Corridor and set up a military checkpoint to enforce the siege, severing all access to food, water, medicines, fuel, gas, electricity etc. RLPB warned: ‘the stage is being set for genocide’ [RLPB 702 (19 July 2023)].

Stepanakert, N-K, 23 June 2023,
30,000 children without food.
(Tatevik Hayrapetyan via X)
Armenian Lives Matter!

STARVATION LOOMS: On 7 August Luis Moreno Ocampo, a former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) released a report in which he argues that the blockade of the Lachin Corridor ‘should be considered a Genocide against the ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh under Article II, (c) of the Genocide Convention: “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.” … Starvation,’ he said, ‘is the invisible genocide weapon. Without immediate dramatic change, this group of Armenians will be destroyed in a few weeks.’ Multiple convoys loaded with humanitarian aid remain holed up at the Lachin Corridor checkpoint having been denied entry into N-K. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo [who championed the cause of Asia Bibi] accompanied the French convoy. She writes (30 Aug): ‘Here at the Lachin Corridor, we testify that no humanitarian aid can enter Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] in total violation of human rights. Our 10 humanitarian aid lorries were blocked. A humanitarian crisis is underway, it is urgent.’ The siege is entering its final stage. People have started to die of malnutrition, while miscarriages and stillbirths have risen by a reported 30 percent. Hospital and supermarket shelves are all bare. Bread (if you can get it) is rationed at 200g per person per day. State reserves of flour and fuel are almost totally depleted. Winter approaches. Genocide looms.


SUDAN: CHRISTIAN CRISIS FOR NUBA IN SOUTH KORDOFAN

BACKGROUND: On 15 April 2023 conflict erupted in Khartoum between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as the two forces commenced a battle for supremacy. The conflict quickly spread to the non-Arab periphery. Genocide is again being perpetrated in Darfur, and full-scale civil war looms over South Kordofan (home to over a million Christians; most of whom live in the Nuba Mountains; many of whom are genocide survivors). In early June, with the SAF distracted, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (al-Hilu faction) exploited the opportunity to take over several SAF compounds around South Kordofan’s capital, Kadugli. [The SPLM-N Hilu faction defends the interests of South Kordofan’s non-Arab, non-Muslim, predominately Christian Nuba tribes.] On 12 June the SAF launched its first air-strikes on the Nuba Mountains since 2016 [RLPB 698 (21 June 2023)]. By mid-August the SPLM-N had taken around 10 bases from the SAF, along with the Karakaya oil facility south of Dilling, meeting very little resistance. In the process the SPLM-N (Hilu) has expanded its territorial control of the state from roughly half to about 60 percent.

Women and children in Nuba Mts
protest the targeting and killing of
Nuba people across Sudan (2022).
- via Dabanga 7 April 2023
Nuba Lives Matter!

 

SIEGE-LIKE CONDITIONS: Save the Children, which maintains an office in Kadugli, reports (2 September): ‘Fighting escalated on 14 August, forcing over 50,000 people – including at least 30,000 children – to be displaced across the town of Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan State. Roadblocks have created a siege-like situation, with food stocks in Kadugli Town fully depleted, and attempts to bring in more supplies failing.’ Reporting from Khartoum, Zeinab Mohammed Salih explains (The Guardian, 20 Aug): ‘The RSF has taken control of the strategic town of Ed Dubeibat [Ed-Dibebat/Dibebad in South Kordofan’s far north-west], which links South Kordofan to the rest of Sudan with a network of roads and railway. The SAF has blocked the roads linking Kadugli and Dilling [60km south of Ed-Dubeibat and 130 north of Kadugli]’ ostensibly to trap those hoping to flee. According to a local women’s rights activist, the situation has deteriorated since the government closed the road connecting Khartoum to Kordofan and Darfur, saying now every vehicle on the road is considered a military target.

STARVATION LOOMS: Sudan Tribune (22 Aug) quotes South Kordofan’s Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) which warns: ‘There is a dire shortage of food and nutrition supplies in Kadugli town. The last food distributions for three months were in May, and those supplies will only last families until the end of this month [August]. Other humanitarian stocks in Kadugli, especially health and nutrition supplies are also running low.’ Save the Children’s Country Director in Sudan, Dr Arif Noor adds: ‘In many ways [Kadugli] is under siege, as food stocks have totally run out and there is no way to replenish them. Those who remain and are injured will not get the medical treatment they need to survive. There is a very real risk that children will start dying from hunger… The international community needs to recognise and treat the conflict in Sudan as the large-scale emergency that it is, and act accordingly.’


PLEASE PRAY THAT OUR MERCIFUL GOD WILL:

* ‘look and see’ (Lamentations 1:11).and be moved to act on behalf of his imperilled people: Christian Armenians besieged in Nagorno-Karabakh and Christian Nuba suffering siege-like conditions in South Kordofan. May the Lord of the Breakthrough (2 Sam 5:20) open the way for life-saving humanitarian aid to be delivered to those in need.

* move in the hearts of those who have the potential to be peacemakers, and those who have authority and responsibility to negotiate solutions, for the saving of many lives; may the Lord grant them courage, conviction and direction. May the Lord of the Breakthrough (2 Sam 5:20) intervene in Azerbaijan and Sudan that his children might be free to lead peaceful and quiet lives, godly and dignified in every way (1 Timothy 2:1-4).

May the world – and especially the Church – cease to be an impassive passer-by (Lamentations 1:11-12a).

SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
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AZERBAIJAN & SUDAN: CHRISTIANS FACE STARVATION

For Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh (an Armenian Christian enclave inside Turkic Muslim Azerbaijan) the siege has reached its final stage. Hospital and supermarket shelves are bare. Bread (if you can get it) is rationed at 200g per person per day. People have started dying of malnutrition, while miscarriages and stillbirths are up 30 percent. Azerbaijan’s aim is nothing less than genocide. Lord have mercy! Meanwhile in Sudan’s South Kordofan (home to more than one million Christians), Save the Children reports (2 September): ‘Roadblocks have created a siege-like situation, with food stocks in Kadugli [the capital] fully depleted, and attempts to bring in more supplies failing.’ Thousands are displaced without food, water or medical care. Save the Children’s Dr Arif Noor expects children will soon start dying from hunger. Lord have mercy!

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Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate for the persecuted Church. The Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) is a donor funded ministry. To support this ministry visit www.ElizabethKendal.com

Elizabeth has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016). She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.

For more information see www.ElizabethKendal.com

RLPB 702. Christian Crisis in Azerbaijan and Iraq

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 702 | Wed 19 Jul 2023
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

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This RLPB updates issues raised in RLPB 699 (28 June 2023) concerning the future of Azerbaijan’s remnant indigenous Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, and Iraq’s remnant indigenous Assyrians in the Nineveh Plains. These ancient Christian peoples are indeed facing a final solution as the governments of Azerbaijan and Iraq – two US-allied, oil and gas-rich, Muslim-majority pseudo democracies – are poised to quietly drive these ancient Christian peoples off heartlands they have inhabited for millennia. The departing remnant Christians will subsequently be replaced by colonising Muslims who will move quickly to erase millennia of Armenian, Assyrian and Christian heritage, as if it never existed.


CHRISTIAN CRISIS IN AZERBAIJAN AND IRAQ
Remnant Indigenous Armenians and Assyrians Face Final Solution
By Elizabeth Kendal

FINAL SOLUTION IN AZERBAIJAN

Armenians protest in central Stepanakert,
14 July 2023
Photo: Marut Vanyan/OC Media.

As reported in RLPB 699, on 15 June, Azerbaijan closed the Lachin/Berdzor Corridor – the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh (N-K; also known as Artsakh) – a mountainous Armenian, Christian enclave inside Turkic, Muslim Azerbaijan – to Armenia and the outside world. On Friday 14 July Azerbaijan finally allowed the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to resume medical evacuations, opening the way for eleven critical patients to be transported into Armenia. That same day, 14 July, some 6000 Armenians gathered in N-K’s capital, Stepanakert, to protest Azerbaijan’s siege of the enclave. As Gegham Stepanyan, a human rights defender from N-K has warned (Asbarez, 12 July): ‘Artsakh [N-K] is at breaking point.’ Stepanyan laments: ‘For a month, Artsakh has been completely cut off from humanitarian access, being literally besieged by Azerbaijan. Since June 15, the intentional and total ban on transportation of food and essential goods by Azerbaijan threatens the lives of 120,000 people of Artsakh… The entire population of Artsakh is under the threat of starvation, and the international actors do not take any steps other than statements… My people are being betrayed by everyone’s criminal indifference.’

The siege disregards the binding judgement by the International Court of Justice, issued on 22 February 2023, which demanded Azerbaijan open the corridor pending a final settlement. While negotiations are underway to hammer out a peace treaty, the residents of N-K have no seat at the table. As Joshua Kucera explains (Eurasianet, 15 June), a deal is currently being negotiated ‘on the one side by Ilham Aliyev – Azerbaijan’s dictator-president, who is using oil-and-gas leverage abroad to dictate terms – and on the other by Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia’s own democrat-turned-petty dictator’ who has already stated he is ready to recognise N-K as part of Azerbaijan. Consequently, Pashinyan is pressing, not for autonomy for N-K, but for ‘security and rights guarantees’ for those living there. ‘It seems,’ concludes the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (28 April) ‘that Yerevan [Armenia] is ready to decisively surrender Karabakh.’ Some fear the stage is being set for genocide, or yet another proxy war between the US (backing Azerbaijan) and Russia (backing the Armenians) for influence in the South Caucuses. Others, like Carnegie’s Kirill Krivosheev, believe conflict will not eventuate. Rather, life will simply become so ‘intolerably difficult’ for the Armenians of N-K that, ‘Confronted with the new, brutal reality, they may decide after all to move to Armenia.’

FINAL SOLUTION IN IRAQ

Assyrians protest outside St Joseph's Ankawa,
13 July 2023.
Photo: Julian Bechoch for Rudaw

As reported in RLPB 699, Iraqi politics is engineered to benefit Iraq’s majority Muslims at the expense of Iraq’s indigenous Assyrian/Chaldean Christians. The pseudo-Christian ‘Babylon Movement’ – which holds four of the five parliamentary seats reserved for Christians – is profoundly compromised. Having won its seats on the votes of Sunni Kurds and Shi’ite Arabs, it is obliged to advance the interests of those communities, not the Christians it claims to represent. Concerning the Babylon Brigades (the paramilitary wing of the Babylon Movement), a profile by Washington Institute (16 March) states that, while it ‘pretends to be a local Christian unit’, its members have been ‘recruited largely from Shia Muslim communities in Baghdad’s Sadr City, al-Muthanna, and Dhi Qar’, and its objective is ‘domination of the Nineveh Plains’. Leading the protest against this existential threat is the Chaldean Patriarch, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako [see RLPB 695 (24 May 2023)].

On 3 July Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid (a Kurd from the Kurdistan Region (KRI)) revoked special presidential decree 147 of 2013, that granted Cardinal Sako powers to administer Chaldean endowment affairs. Rashid’s decision came after he met with the Babylon Movement’s Rayan al-Kildani, whose party and militia are ‘affiliated with the pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)’ (Rudaw, 13 July).  On the morning of Thursday 13 July, residents of Ankawa – a Christian-majority district situated at the northern edge of the KRI capital, Erbil – filled the street in front of the Cathedral of Saint Joseph to protest Rashid’s decision. Diya Butrus Slewa, a leading human rights defender from Ankawa, told Rudaw (13 July): ‘This is a political manoeuvre to seize the remainder of what Christians have left in Iraq and Baghdad and to expel them… We hope the Iraqi presidency hears our people and revokes this [decision] as soon as possible…’ Slewa explained to Rudaw that Rashid’s decision strips Cardinal Sako’s authority to administer the Church’s assets and carry out decisions such as renovating and building churches across Iraq. The decision renders all Church assets – land and property – vulnerable to Kildani’s land grab in the Nineveh Plains. On 15 July Cardinal Sako announced that he had left the Patriarchal Residence in Baghdad and would move into one of the monasteries in the KRI; he did not disclose any further details.

PLEASE PRAY THAT OUR MERCIFUL GOD WILL:

* intervene for his faithful people, to preserve life and sustain faith in the midst of injustice, belligerence, betrayal and profound trauma. Lord have mercy!

‘O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head’ (Psalm 3:1-3 ESV).

* awaken the wider Church of the need to speak up, pray for, and give generously to these gravely imperilled Christian communities – the Armenians of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh, and the Assyrians of Iraq’s Nineveh Plains – as the Muslims who want them gone threaten to overrun them, and as the post-Christian West turns its back on them. (See Proverbs 24:11-12 ESV)

* protect Cardinal Sako from those who would seek to harm or even eliminate him; may he have wisdom to know how to proceed and how to lead the Church in Iraq. May the fortunes of God’s people be reversed.


SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
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CHRISTIAN CRISIS IN AZERBAIJAN AND IRAQ

A definitive Christian crisis looms over Azerbaijan’s remnant indigenous Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh (N-K) and Iraq’s remnant indigenous Assyrians in the Nineveh Plains. The governments of Azerbaijan and Iraq – two US-allied, oil-and gas-rich, Muslim-majority pseudo-democracies – are poised to drive these indigenous Christian peoples off lands they have inhabited for millennia. Some 120,000 Armenian Christians are currently besieged in N-K, which is at ‘breaking point’. Meanwhile, up to 300,000 Assyrian Christians in Northern Iraq are being systematically disenfranchised and disposessed. The departing Christians will be replaced by colonising Muslims who will quickly erase millennia of Armenian, Assyrian and Christian heritage, as if it never existed. All the while, the post-Christian West turns away, ‘ashamed’ of their suffering. Please pray.

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Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate for the persecuted Church. The Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) is a donor funded ministry. To support this ministry visit www.ElizabethKendal.com

Elizabeth has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016). She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.

For more information see www.ElizabethKendal.com

RLPB 687. March 2023 Update, incl. Egypt, Nigeria, Burma (Myanmar), Azerbaijan, China, Mali, Uganda

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 687 | Wed 29 Mar 2023
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

Sign up for the RLPB at www.ElizabethKendal.com
View RLPB archives at Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin blog.
For bite-size: follow religiouslibertyprayer on Instagram.

MARCH 2023 UPDATE & ROUNDUP
By Elizabeth Kendal

UPDATE: DURING MARCH WE PRAYED CONCERNING

EGYPT [RLPB 682 (1 March)], ahead of two critically important court battles.

UPDATES: Regarding the adoption case: see below. Regarding the vexatious civil lawsuit being brought by three Muslim men against Mrs Thabet, the Christian grandmother whom they brutalised: there is no further news.

As reported via a ‘quick update’ in RLPB 686 (22 March), the court declined to rule in the lawsuit brought by a Christian couple regarding their right to adopt Shenouda, a boy they had raised for four years since he was found abandoned inside a church as a newborn [RLPB 682 (1 March)]. Consequently, the State’s decision stands: Shenouda (5) will not be returned to his adoptive Christian parents. Article 2 of Egypt’s 2014 Constitution states: ‘The principles of Islamic Sharia are the principal source of legislation.’ However, Article 3 – which pertains to ‘Christian and Jewish religious affairs’ – maintains: ‘The principles of the laws of Egyptian Christians and Jews are the main source of laws regulating their personal status, religious affairs, and selection of spiritual leaders.’ As Youssef Sidhom (Watani International) explains in a July 2022 editorial: ‘This [Article 3] paves the way for Personal Status Bylaws for Christians, also known as Family Law for Christians in Egypt, but Parliament has as yet passed no such law.’ Furthermore, it seems that unlike marriage, divorce and inheritance, adoption is not being considered under the umbrella of Family Law, when clearly it should. Egypt’s Personal Status Law is currently under review. It is imperative that the law be amended to give Christians the legal right to adopt children under Christian Family Law. Please pray.

CONCERNING ADOPTION: Islam permits guardianship (foster care) for orphaned and abandoned children. However, it bans adoption so as to ensure non-biological children do not receive inheritance. On 6 February, Turkey was struck by a series of devastating earthquakes which are estimated to have killed up to 46,000 people. In response to questions about whether children orphaned by the quake could be adopted, Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) issued a fatwa (religious ruling) explaining that, while Islam bans adoption, ‘there is no obstacle for marrying’ earthquake-affected children. [According to the Diyanet, the minimum age for marriage for girls is eight years old.] Please pray: May God sustain and amplify Turkish outrage (which is considerable) and use this fatwa to further expose the moral deficiency of Islam. May no orphaned or lost Christian child be exploited in this way. Lord have mercy!

NIGERIA [RLPB 683 (3 March)], where tensions are running high after Bola Tinubu (of the ruling All Progressives Congress) was declared the winner of the presidential election, despite winning only 36.6 percent of the vote, and only 12 of 36 states.

UPDATE: THE BATTLE HAS BARELY BEGUN

Four presidential candidates, including the two leading opposition candidates – Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party – have filed petitions at the presidential election tribunal. Meanwhile, Tinubu jetted off to Paris for a medical check-up, after which he headed to Saudi Arabia so he might spend the first days of Ramadan in Mecca. It was the worst possible result, not only for Nigeria’s Christians, but for Nigeria, as it portends to four more years of APC systemic corruption and misrule, all but guaranteeing four more years of economic decline and catastrophic insecurity. Tinubu ran on an unprecedented Muslim-Muslim ticket, attracting votes from Islamists across the North [RLPB 678 (1 Feb)]. Had Obi (an ethnic Igbo Christian) won the election, Nigeria would certainly have seen an eruption of Islamic rioting. Currently the situation is relatively calm as the Islamists are appeased. Furthermore, Atiku (PDP) and Obi (Labour) did move quickly to exhort their followers to embrace peace, reject provocation and let the judicial process take its course. One day at a time! Our God can be trusted; he knows what he is doing. Please continue to pray for Nigeria.

KADUNA: VILLAGERS MASSACRED; CLERGY MURDERED AND KIDNAPPED

Fulani terrorists continue to wage terror on the Christian villages of Southern Kaduna, massacring villagers while looting and burning homes, farms, crops and businesses. On 10 March, they killed 17 villagers in Ungwan Wakili village, Zangon Kataf Local Government Area (LGA). On 14 March they killed 10 villagers in Langson village, also in Zangon Kataf LGA. Morning Star News (MSN) has a list of names: they are all Christian names. An area resident named Barnabas, who lost five family members, told MSN, ‘Our attackers were Muslim Fulani herdsmen who came along with terrorists to invade our community.’ There can be no mistake, this is a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Kaduna will soon have a new governor: Senator Uba Sani (APC). Please pray he can bring security to the state.

Rev. Musa Mairimi and his wife

At around 2am on Thursday 23 March, gunmen targeted the home of Reverend Musa Mairimi, the minister in charge of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), Buda community in Southern Kaduna’s Kajuru LGA. They had come to kidnap him, but when he resisted they shot him dead and kidnapped his wife instead. The incident was confirmed by the Hausa Christians Foundation and by Kaduna State Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Rev. Joseph Hayab. In the weeks prior to this attack two other clergy were abducted for ransom. Lamenting the situation Hayab asks, ‘Who will you cry to and who will you run to, after all, since the carnage of kidnapping started in Kaduna, no concrete arrests have been made.’ Who will we cry to when politicians fail us? We will cry to the Lord who hears and saves.

‘Oh Lord, we ask for the Grace and Courage to Boldly declare your Counsel for the Salvation of Mankind even amidst this raging persecution. May Your Church keep advancing in Jesus Name. Amen.’ (Hausa Christian Foundation, Facebook, 24 March 2023.)

BURMA [RLPB 684 (8 March)], on the occasion of the Global Day of Prayer for Burma.

KACHIN STATE: JUNTA CLOSES IDP CAMPS

Free Burma Rangers conducts a children's program
at an IDP camp in Burma's Kachin State.

The junta has announced that it is closing 25 IDP [Internally Displaced Persons] camps near the Kachin capital, Myitkyina. It has demanded that the IDPs vacate the camps by the end of March. Aid groups are complaining that this is being done ‘without a viable plan for rehabilitation’. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is concerned that IDPs will be returning to home villages that have been contaminated by landmines and unexploded ordnance, or that are occupied by active Burmese military forces. Kachin State has a population of 1.7 million, most of whom are Christian, and 101,500 of whom are displaced. Around 11,900 of those have become displaced since the February 2021 coup; the rest have been displaced since war resumed in 2011 [RLPB 114 (29 Jun 2011)]. The IDP’s plight is exacerbated by the fact that the junta maintains a humanitarian blockade on all areas not under its control, leaving local churches to carry the burden of caring for the displaced. The closing of the camps will leave many thousands of vulnerable Kachin, not only doubly displaced but dispersed. Please pray for the Christian Kachin.

CHIN STATE: BRACING FOR FRESH MILITARY OFFENSIVE

On 9 and 10 March, convoys of 30 and 80 military vehicles were observed entering Chin State (population 500,000; a Christian nation). It is alleged the vehicles were transporting supplies and reinforcements into the state in preparation for a fresh offensive ahead of the rainy season (June through October). Chin resistance fighters are monitoring the convoys, which they say are fanning out to various townships. They have also launched attacks on these convoys; but this comes at a cost. On 11 March, Chin forces ambushed a convoy in a valley near Tedim Township. In response, junta troops took 30 Chin residents as human shields. Furthermore, the troop reinforcements are ‘receiving air cover from jet fighters and helicopter gunships that are circling townships in the Chin Hills every day’. Please continue to pray for the Christian Chin, and for the Church in Burma.

INDONESIA [RLPB 685 (15 March)] after another popular Christian apologist was arrested for ‘blasphemy’. There is no update: theologian and apologist Gratia Pello (40) remains 'disappeared'. No trial date has been set and there has been no news of Pello since he was arrested at his home on 6 December 2022. This is deeply disturbing. Please pray.

SUDAN [RLPB 686 (22 March)] where Islamic intolerance and state repression can be intense. As noted: ‘The difficulty of freeing multi-racial, multi-religious Sudan from the grip of intolerant fundamentalist Islam and a thoroughly entrenched and heavily invested Arab Islamist Deep State cannot be overstated.’ Please continue to pray for Christian convert Awatif Abdalla Kaki, that God will provide her with a safe house and with Christian support; and for the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC), that God will intervene to ensure justice prevails.

MARCH 2023 ROUND-UP – also this month

* AZERBAIJAN: ARMENIANS MARK 100 DAYS UNDER SIEGE
Update to RLPB 677 January Update (24 Jan 2023) concerning the blockade of Artsakh.

On 12 December Azerbaijani forces enacted a siege of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh; an ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan) by blockading the Lachin Corridor (the road linking Artsakh to Armenia) putting Artsakh’s 120,000 residents at risk of a humanitarian crisis. On 21 March – 30 days after the United Nations’ highest court ordered Azerbaijan to end the blockade – Armenians marked 100 days of siege. Recently, Azerbaijani troops discovered that Armenians were using a rough dirt road just north of the Lachin Corridor to circumvent the blockade. Russian peacekeepers too have been running what Eurasia.net described as ‘a large-scale blockade-busting operation’ to keep Armenians supplied with essential food and medicines. On 25 March Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry announced that its units had taken ‘necessary local control measures’ to cut off the dirt road being used to circumvent the blockade. Russia – which has ordered the Azerbaijanis to ‘cease the engineering work and to withdraw their forces to their previous positions’ – is ‘negotiating with the Azerbaijani side to ensure their retreat’. Many suspect Turkic Muslim Azerbaijan is poised to ethnically cleanse Christian Armenians out of Artsakh and is only waiting for Russia to blink. Please pray.

* CHINA

XINJIANG: ALIMUJIANG YIMITI RELEASED AFTER 15 YEARS.

Uyghur Christian Alimujiang Yimiti (50) has been released from prison after serving his 15-year sentence. Born into a Muslim family, Yimiti converted to Christianity in 1995 and went on to become a house church pastor. In 2007, authorities in Kashgar, Xinjiang, charged Yimiti with ‘illegally proselytising Christianity to the Uyghur community and disseminating Christian propaganda under the guise of “work”...’ In 2008, in a secret trial with no defence lawyer, Yimiti was charged with ‘leaking state secrets’ and sentenced to 15 years in prison. China Aid Association reports (15 March): ‘While other details are unconfirmed, the Uyghur house church pastor is home with his family’ (his wife Gulinuer, and two children). Christian Uyghurs account for about two percent of Xinjiang’s estimated 26 million residents. Yimiti’s release comes at a time when Chinese Communist Party (CCP) pressure on Xinjiang’s non-Han (Uyghurs, Kazaks, Kyrgyz, Tajiks, Hui etc) is unrelenting and unprecedented in its severity. The surveillance is suffocating and cultural genocide is well underway. The trials of this faithful family are anything but over. Please pray.

Recommended: Trans World Radio (TWR-UK) talks with Andrew Boyd (Release International), 23 March 2023. YouTube (8:28mins).

ZHEJIANG: ATHEISM MANDATORY

In March, Christian parents in Longwan District of Wenzhou, Zhejiang, reported that they were being required to sign a pledge in order to have their children in kindergarten. The document, called a ‘Kindergarten Family Commitment Not to Believe in Religion’, obliges the parents to lead ‘civilised families’ who ‘do not believe in religion, do not participate in any religious activities, and do not teach religion to children’. The parents must commit to keeping their children away from Falun Gong, ‘xie jiao’ (evil cults; i.e. religious groups not approved by the CCP) and ‘feudal superstition’; and to teach their children to ‘have faith in science, socialism, and the Chinese Communist Party’. Church schools and home-schooling are illegal in China. The CCP is tightening the noose. Please pray.

HENAN: ‘SMART RELIGION’

Christians in Henan Province wanting to attend a church activity must first complete an on-line form – available through the ‘Smart Religion’ App – and receive permission from officials. China Aid Association reports (6 March): ‘Applicants must fill in personal information, including name, phone number, ID number, permanent residence, occupation, and date of birth, before they can make a reservation. Those who are allowed into the church must also have their temperature taken and show a reservation code.’ According to the Henan Daily (24 Feb), the authorities deem it ‘necessary to strictly manage religion in a comprehensive way, [to] unite and guide the majority of religious believers to follow the Chinese Communist Party unswervingly.’ The only alternative to ‘Smart Religion’ is illegal religion, with the risks that entails. Please pray for the Church in China.

* MALI: JEFF WOODKE RELEASED

 (left) Olivier Dubois and Jeff Woodke,
leaving Niger on 20 March 2023.
(right) Dr Ken Elliott, still missing.

On Monday 20 March French journalist Olivier Dubois and American Christian aid worker Jeffery Woodke arrived at Niger’s Diori Hamani International Airport having been cleared to fly home. Dubois had been kidnapped in northern Mali in April 2021, while Woodke – who had lived in Niger since 1992 – had been kidnapped in October 2016 [RLPB 396 (1 March 2017)]. Held captive by a splinter group of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the men were released in the tri-border region. Woodke’s wife, Els Woodke told World Watch Monitor (21 March) that Jeff was ‘in good condition’, and she thanked Christians for their prayers and support. Praise God! Update on American nun, Suellen Tennyson, kidnapped by jihadists in northern Burkina Faso in April 2022 [RLPB 656 (3 Aug 2022)]: it has been revealed that the same Nigerien intelligence services that obtained the release of Dubois and Woodke, obtained Sister Tennyson’s release in August 2022. Praise God! There is no update on Australian captive, Dr Ken Elliott, kidnapped in Burkina Faso’s far north in January 2016 [RLPB 341 (27 Jan 2016)]. Dr Elliott (87) remains a captive of, and medical slave to, al-Qaeda-aligned jihadists based somewhere in northern Mali. Lord have mercy!

* UGANDA: CONVERSION MEETS INTOLERANCE AND IMPUNITY

(1) Pastor Adinani Bulwa (42) of Muterere village, Bugiri District, Eastern Region, had been under pressure from Muslim relatives to recant his faith in Jesus Christ. Not only did he refuse to renounce Christ, but in February he led four members of his extended family to Christ. On the night of 10 March, a group of Muslim relatives took Pastor Bulwa out of his home, away from his wife and five children, and brutally murdered him. His wife, Zabiina Newumbwe, found his body, telling Morning Star News (28 March), ‘I could not control my emotions and shouted in a loud voice. Thereafter I fainted due to shock… The children and I are living in great fear from the relatives – our security is at stake. We had to seek help elsewhere. We need prayers so that God may guide us on what to do next.’ Please pray.

(2) On 15 March Pastor John Balidawa (35) and his son, Gilbert Sanja (14), were at Ebenezer Christian Centre in Kigulu village, Mayuge District, Eastern Region. They were setting up the venue for an all-night prayer vigil when a group of Muslim fundamentalists descended on the property and ordered the pastor to take his son and leave. When Pastor Balidawa refused, the Muslims attacked. Pastor Balidawa regained consciousness in hospital to find his son in the bed beside him and the church’s senior pastor, Gerald Kato Wakabi (39), watching over them. The pair suffered numerous broken bones and extensive bruising. The Muslims had stolen their phones and destroyed the church property along with its seating. The next day Pastor Wakabi found a written note at the site of demolished church that read, ‘No more church in this area. This area is holy ground for Allah’s worship only.’ Established in January 2022, the church has 47 members, including 12 converts from Islam. They are currently meeting in small house fellowships as they search for a new place to gather, further away from the town mosque. Pastor Wakabi told Morning Star News (22 March), ‘The priority now is to safeguard the faith of the Christians … especially those members who converted from Islam to Christianity.’ Please pray.

---------------------------------------

Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate for the persecuted Church. The Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) is a donor-funded ministry. To support this ministry visit www.ElizabethKendal.com

Elizabeth has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016). She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.

For more information see www.ElizabethKendal.com

RLPB 681. February Update incl. Nigeria, Artsakh, USA, D.R.Congo, Ghana, India, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Sudan

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 681 | Wed 22 Feb 2023
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

Sign up for the RLPB at www.ElizabethKendal.com
View RLPB archives at Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin blog.
For bite-size: follow religiouslibertyprayer on Instagram.

FEBRUARY 2023 UPDATE & ROUNDUP
By Elizabeth Kendal

DURING FEBRUARY WE PRAYED CONCERNING

NIGERIA’S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

This Saturday, 25 February, Nigeria’s presidential election will be held amidst soaring ethno-religious tensions, gross insecurity and the threat of widespread election-related violence. Nigeria has a population of 220 million, around half of whom identify as Christian. Those most at risk are minority Christians in the Muslim North and all ethnic Igbo living outside the South East. [The Igbo are Nigeria’s most Christian (98 percent), most industrious and most widely dispersed tribe.] The Nigerian Church is one of the world’s leading missionary-sending Churches.

‘Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armour of God [described in vs13-17] … [and] keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication [earnest prayer] for all the saints.’ (From Ephesians 6:10-18 ESV)

RLPB 678. Nigerian Elections (1): The Candidates, 1 Feb 2023
RLPB 679. Nigerian Elections (2): Insecurity and the Igbo, 8 Feb 2023
RLPB 680. Nigerian Elections (3): Buhari’s Legacy, 15 Feb 2023

UPDATE: A Redfield & Wilton Strategies poll conducted over 10-12 February showed Labour’s Peter Obi – an ethnic Igbo Christian from the long-marginalised South East – well out in front. Excerpts from the R&WS poll results: ‘Peter Obi (Labour Party) 62 percent; Bola Tinubu (All Progressives Congress) 22 percent; Atiku Abubakar (Peoples Democratic Party) 12 percent; Rubi’u Musa Kwankwaso (New Nigeria People’s Party) 3 percent; another candidate, 1 percent. … While enthusiasm for Obi is said to be driven by younger voters, majorities of voters across all age groups say they intend to vote for Obi. … Peter Obi is the only major candidate in the upcoming election who is viewed favourably by a majority of Nigerian voters…’

However, Peter Obi’s campaign has not been without its challenges. In recent weeks several of the Labour Party’s Northern Muslim gubernatorial and state assembly candidates have abandoned Obi and Labour and defected to the APC and PDP, both of which are running Muslim candidates. The defecting candidates accuse Obi of running a ‘non-inclusive’ campaign and pandering to the Igbo, something his campaign and his supporters deny. Ndi Kato, a spokesperson for Obi’s campaign, told The Africa Report (15 Feb) that she does not believe the high-level political defections will have any impact on the polls. ‘Our foot soldiers are the people of Nigeria. They are volunteering … this election is between the people and the political class.’

Kato’s analysis hits the target! This is an election between the people (i.e. those who have been impoverished) and Nigeria’s political and military elites (i.e. those who profit from systemic corruption). However, it will also be fought between those advancing ethnic (e.g. Fulani) and/or Islamic hegemony, and those demanding religious freedom and tolerance, education and jobs, health, peace and prosperity in a ‘New Nigeria’. The battle is about to begin!

Nigeria is entering a very challenging and indeed pivotal period of its history. Please, keep alert and pray.

ROUNDUP: ALSO IN FEBRUARY

* AZERBAIJAN: ARMENIANS FACE ETHNIC CLEANSING

Armenians under siege.
Photos by Ani Balayan,
Armenian Weekly 15 Feb 2023

Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) – an ethnic-Armenian Christian enclave in Turkic Muslim Azerbaijan – has been in a state of siege since 12 December when Azerbaijani agents blockaded the Lachin Corridor (the road that links Artsakh to Armenia). On 15 February the Armenian Weekly warned: ‘It is beyond any doubt that the actions’ of these Azerbaijani agents ‘serve as a consistent tool for Azerbaijan’s hybrid warfare tactics and systematic policy of ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Artsakh. … Cut off from the outside world, the 120,000-strong population of Artsakh is inching closer to an inevitable humanitarian catastrophe every single day. There are extreme shortages of food, medicine and other basic necessities. There is a lack of proper heating in harsh winter conditions.’ Rich in ancient Armenian Christian architecture (which Azerbaijan doesn’t want), Artsakh is also rich in minerals, in particular gold and copper. Complicating matters, Baku – Azerbaijan’s capital, located on the shore of the Caspian Sea – is rich in oil and gas. That gas – which is desperately needed in Europe – is now flowing through the Southern Gas Corridor. Consequently, we should not expect any Western government will challenge Baku – at least not with anything more than a few meaningless words! The situation is dire. Please pray.

‘It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes’ (Psalm 118:9 ESV).
Prayer for Artsakh – Psalm 118:5-17

Recommended: ‘Do you know what is happening in Armenia?’ by Craig Simonian, World Evangelical Alliance’s Peace & Reconciliation Network (PRN), 13 Feb 2023.

MEANWHILE: ARMENIANS IN BEVERLEY HILLS

Flyers posted around Beverly Hills,
28 Jan 2023.

On Saturday 28 January police in Beverly Hills, California, USA, declared that flyers inciting a new Armenian genocide ‘fall within the protection of the First Amendment of the US Constitution’ (i.e. they are protected as free speech). The flyers, which read – ‘Azerbaijan + Turkey + Pakistan + Israel = 4 BROTHERS WILL WIPE Armenia OFF the MAP, Inshallah !!!!’ – had been posted throughout the city on 28 January, ahead of the Armenian Youth Federation Western United States’ March for Artsakh. [NOTE: Israel is a key ally and weapons supplier to Azerbaijan.] As Melody Seraydarian notes, ‘At a time when our homeland [Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic-Armenian Christian enclave in Turkic Muslim Azerbaijan] is undergoing a humanitarian crisis, this kind of rhetoric – especially at a protest intended to call national attention to the Artsakh blockade – is alarming.’ It might have taken a whole week, but on 7 February, Beverly Hills Police Department did remove their statement from social media. However, an anxious Armenian community is still waiting for an explanation. Please pray.

* DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC): TERROR IN NORTH-EAST

Islamic State Democratic Republic of Congo (ISDRC: the DRC chapter of Islamic State Central Africa Province) continues to consolidate and expand in the DRC’s north-east. This is the same group that on 15 January bombed a church baptism service in North Kivu Province, killing 14 worshippers and wounding around 70 [RLPB 677 (25 Jan 2023)]. Since then ISDRC [formerly known as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)] has continued to wreak terror in DRC’s north-east. On Sunday night 22 January, ISDRC terrorists killed 23 civilians in Beni, North Kivu. Before dawn on Sunday 28 January, the group launched simultaneous attacks on three villages in neighbouring Ituri Province (north of North Kivu) leaving more than 20 dead. On Sunday 12 February and Monday 13 February, ISDRC terrorists killed at least 22 civilians and burned homes and medical facilities in two districts of Ituri Province. On Wednesday 15 February they killed five more civilians in Ituri. ISDRC is only one of several militias wreaking havoc in DRC’s north-east where some 6.8 million Congolese have been displaced [UNHCR, Feb 2023] and services – most of which are provided, not by the state but by the Church – have been disrupted. It is a full-blown Christian crisis. Please pray for DRC, for DRC President Felix Tshisekedi (described as a devout Christian), and for DRC’s suffering and imperilled Church.

* GHANA: BAWKU CONFLICT; OPPORTUNITY FOR JIHADISTS

Map showing location of Bawku.
(click on map to enlarge)

A high-risk situation has emerged in Ghana’s far north-east as conflict returns to Bawku. The conflict – between the non-Muslim, mostly-Christian indigenous ethnic Kusasi and the Muslim ethnic Mamprusi who migrated from Togo and established the town in the 18th Century – has ethnic, political and religious dimensions. Power struggles between the Mamprusi (who dominate the urban centre) and the Kusasi (who live on the periphery) are nothing new. However, while the groups used to fight with sticks, now they fight with automatic weapons, making this power struggle far more deadly. What’s more, the consolidation and expansion of jihadist terror groups in the Sahel makes any destabilisation far more dangerous.

After 13 years of peace, conflict erupted in Bawku in November 2021 after a rumour spread that the Mamprusi were ‘planning to install their own regent as chief, in a direct challenge to the current Kusasi ruler’. On 6 February Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) were used in an attempt to blow up a bridge, causing alarm in the security forces as it was the first time an IED had been deployed in Ghana. On 15 February the Mamprusi did install a parallel king/chief in Bawku, an act the government in Accra condemned as ‘illegal and a threat to national security’. Fierce gun battles ensued, and the town is now totally polarised along ethnic and religious lines. The government has announced it will send an additional 5000 troops to Bawku to stem the escalating violence. According to Ghana’s defence minister, Dominic Nitiwul, ‘Unknown elements are sowing seeds of radicalisation in the area …’ Critically, security analysts report that ‘foreigners have infiltrated Bawku and they are being aided by the locals to kill’. These foreigners ‘are the agents of the locals’ who invite them in and give them sanctuary [The Africa Report, 15 Feb]. There is a huge risk that jihadist terror groups based in Burkina Faso and the wider Sahel might exploit the situation to get a foothold in northern Ghana. Please pray.

* INDIA: ARSON IN NARMADAPURAM, MADHYA PRADESH

On Sunday 12 February members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Narmadapuram district, in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, arrived for morning prayers only to find that Hindu nationalists had broken into their church and torched the interior. The furniture, carpets, appliances, musical instruments, Bibles and prayer books had been dowsed in flammable liquid and burned. The six-year-old church – which has a seating capacity of 1000 – had only recently been repainted. On 14 February, police arrested three suspected arsonists. While Pastor Mahesh Kumre thanked and praised the police for their prompt action, another Christian leader, Dennis Jonathan lamented that the arsonists will only be charged with ‘hurting religious sentiments’ which, unlike arson, only attracts a minor penalty. The police suspect the accused – who had a list of Christian and Muslim places of worship to target and claimed that they were only defending their religion – are also responsible for two other church arson attacks in Narmadapuram district in January. Christians make up a mere 0.29 percent of Madhya Pradesh’s 72 million population. Please pray for India, for the vulnerable Church in Madhya Pradesh, and that the accused arsonists (three young men in their early 20s) might ‘repent and believe the good news’ (Mark 1:15 NIV).

* NICARAGUA: FORCED EXILE AND IMPRISONMENT
- Church endures most severe crackdown in decades.

On 10 February Bishop Rolando José Álvarez (56) – who was arrested on 19 August 2022 [see RLPB 660 (31 Aug 2022)] – was stripped of his citizenship and sentenced to 26 years in prison after the court deemed him guilty of undermining the government, spreading false information, obstruction of functions and disobedience. A leading Catholic, Bishop Álvarez has been an outspoken critic of President Daniel Ortega. It is the longest sentence given to a political prisoner in years.

One day earlier, on 9 February, the Nicaraguan government forcibly exiled 222 political prisoners, stripping them of their citizenship and putting them on a flight to the USA without informing their families. The CSW press release of 10 February lists the church leaders forcibly exiled: they include numerous Catholics and one Protestant pastor. Bishop Álvarez was supposed to be among them. However, as the US Commission on International Religious Freedom noted in its condemnation of the bishop’s 26-year sentence: ‘Authorities reportedly gave Bishop Álvarez the opportunity to join the exiled prisoners, but he chose to stay in his native country to be with the Catholic community under repression by the Ortega regime.’ Lord have mercy! Please pray.

‘Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body’ (Hebrews 13:3 ESV).

* PAKISTAN: RELENTLESS PERSECUTION

Sunita Masih after acid attack.
(Morning Star News,
courtesy of family)

KARACHI: On 1 February a Christian girl named Sunita Masih (19) left home to go to work. While at the bus station, a Muslim neighbour, Kamran Allah Bux threw acid over her, burning her face, eyes, arms and legs. Sunita, who belongs to the local Salvation Army church, will be permanently scared, physically and emotionally. Bux (who is married) had long been harassing Sunita, pressuring her to convert to Islam and marry him – advances she repeatedly rejected. Bux has been arrested and police have registered a case against him.

PUNJAB: On 4 February police in Faisalabad finally registered a case against Rana Tayyab, a 60-year-old Muslim man who had, on 15 December, kidnapped a 15-year-old Christian girl named Sitara Arif (also known as Saira). Saira’s father, Arif Gill had spent nearly two months trying in vain to get the police to register a case. On 3 February, when attorney Akmal Bhatti – Gill’s lawyer and chairman of the Minorities Alliance Pakistan – learned of Gill’s plight, he intervened and demanded immediate action from the police. By now Saira will have been forcibly converted to Islam and forcibly married to Tayyab who is rumoured to have taken Saira to Islamabad. Lord have mercy!  

On 6 February a Muslim landowner accused Christian labourer Emmanuel Masih (48) of stealing oranges from his orchard. He, along with five Muslim labourers, then beat Masih to death as he pleaded his innocence. Masih leaves behind a wife and six children; no-one expects to see justice. Lord have mercy! Please pray for the Church in Pakistan.

* SUDAN: ASSASSINATION AND PERSECUTION

On 23 January Ibrahim Kander (or Gebeira) – a pastor with the Sudan Church of Christ – was assassinated in a drive-by shooting by suspected members of Sudan’s State Intelligence. Pastor Ibrahim – a US citizen from Grand Island (a city in Nebraska, USA) – was with his wife, Nafisa Awad Toto, and son, Luis Ibrahim Kander (3) visiting family in the Nuba Mountains when he was shot and killed. While Pastor Ibrahim’s wife and son survived the attack, three of his nephews who were also present did not. Please pray.

On 9 February, Ahmad Adam Mohamad (49) of North Darfur in western Sudan, fled into hiding after his extended Muslim family – who had accused him apostasy – sent Muslim militants to kill him. Mohamad, who has been a follower of Jesus for 10 years now, told Morning Star News: ‘The situation is extremely difficult – I am not safe at all. I urge all the brothers to pray and help me get out from this area to a safer place.’ On Friday 17 February authorities in Sudan’s south-eastern Blue Nile State arrested Yousif Ayoub Hussein Ali for preaching to Muslims at an open-air worship event. Preacher Ali had not violated any Sudanese law and no-one is suggesting that the Muslims were not there of their own free will. Please pray for these our brothers: Ahmad Adam Mohamad and Yousif Ayoub Hussein Ali.

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Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate for the persecuted Church. The Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) is a donor funded ministry. To support this ministry visit www.ElizabethKendal.com

Elizabeth has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016). She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.

For more information see www.ElizabethKendal.com